Starting Again
by Goldautumn
Summary: To escape her past life and start again, Lena moves out of the city to Waffle Island. ToT novelization made slightly more realistic and dramatic.


"Land-ho!"

A whirlwind of long brown hair dashed out of the cabin at the joyful cry of land after many long days at sea. The girl stood at the railing on the port of the boat, her dark eyes looked eagerly ahead at the tiny speck of land that was getting bigger as they approached. The sea was beautiful at that moment with its cerulean skies and deep blue waves, but the most beautiful thing to her was the island – an escape from the endless days at sea, and the start of a brand new part of her life.

She closed her eyes and took in the warmth of the golden sunlight and the cool breeze in her face. The wind played with her waist-length brown hair which was so thick and long that even though it was in a tight ponytail, it could be fanned out. It felt wonderful. She let out a sigh of delight and stretched out her arms, savoring the feeling. If every day that she had spent at sea was as nice as this one, then she might have not minded the ride that much. The way there was terrible. It was stormy and rough every day, all day. The waves and wind had tossed the boat every which way like it was nothing but a leaf. The girl was unaccustomed to sea travel and was beginning to fear that they would never make it to the island, and get lost to the hungry sea forever.

"Excited to get off this boat and away from us sailors, Lena?" chuckled a kind looking old sailor, walking over to join the girl against the railing of the ship.

The girl, Lena, reddened, "Well um…"

The sailor laughed, "Don't worry. I can't wait to get off this ship either. I love the sea, but goddess, I can only take so much of it at a time." He gazed out into the distance. "I think that we should even consider ourselves lucky. This journey was one of the calmer ones." He sighed, "The waters around the island are very treacherous. Especially ever since the tree…"

Lena wasn't sure how to respond to that, so she offered him a nervous smile. She had always been rather shy and awkward around people, and the sailor wasn't making much sense to her. "The tree…?"

"Never mind my nonsense musings," the sailor smiled a smile that did not quite cover up the sadness in his eyes. Lena noticed this, but before she could ask why he seemed sad, the sailor quickly changed to subject, "We'll be at the island in about twenty minutes. I suggest you brace yourself for your meeting with Hamilton. He'll be waiting at the docks for you, no doubt. He was so excited when I called to let him know that I was coming with someone who wanted to start a ranch, I wouldn't've been surprised if he'd started squealing."

"Um…Thanks for the…er… warning then, Pascal…"

Pascal turned his head to look at Lena's expression, and burst out laughing.

The formerly quiet afternoon was broken by the flurry of activity that Waffle Island had not seen in many years. The mayor had personally (much to the horror of his son) seen to the informing of every single resident on the small lonely island that there was a new rancher arriving on that very island, very soon.

To stay.

Permanently.

There had not been any newcomers to the under populated island in many, many years, and everyone was excited to finally see a new face. Although the islanders' excitement could not compare to the mayor's, by the time the mysterious newcomer had finally arrived, there was a sizeable crowd gathered at the docks to meet and welcome the rancher.

Lena stayed at the railing of the boat for the whole time while it approached the island. It was exciting to see Waffle Island sticking out boldly and being different from the miles and miles of vast, endless, consuming blue everywhere around it. Finally, she was arriving at the island. As it drew nearer, she could see a small docking area, a small but peaceful looking town, and far in the distance, a magnificent mountain towering over everything. It seemed like a nice place to live if you liked peace and quiet. It was large enough to start a successful town, but small enough for everyone to know each other. Small enough to run across in a day. Lena didn't know if she was excited by the fact that it was that small, or horrified that everyone would know everyone else except her.

She did know that when they were close enough to see the large crowd of people at the dock, she was panicking.

_So many people…_

Lena wasn't afraid of people. She just liked to be by herself. She didn't like talking. She wanted to make a good first impression, but she didn't think that they would think that she was good enough. They were so excited to meet a new resident and she didn't want to disappoint. Her whole life had revolved around that one point: do not disappoint anyone. She had deluded herself into thinking that she would be happy by not disappointing anyone, and that was the very reason she came to the island. So she could get a fresh start and forget about the old ideology that her demanding parents had hammered into her for her whole life. Still, old habits were hard to break. Lena sighed and finally turned her back to the island to go into the cabin to get her bags. It looked like they'd be docking soon.

Lena cautiously stepped off the boat, both because her legs didn't seem to want to stay steady, and because that extremely ecstatic-looking man that she assumed must be that Hamilton that Pascal had mentioned earlier looked like he was going to run forward and hug her any minute. Were newcomers to this island really the cause for this much celebration? Waffle Island must not have had anyone arrive for years. Other than the ride there, there didn't seem to be that much reason to not come. From what she had seen, which really wasn't that much, it was a nice little island. The ride there on the other hand… Lena shuddered. It had been horrible.

"I'll just be leaving you here now, 'kay?" said Pascal.

"Okay…Thanks for the ride than Pascal."

Pascal nodded and headed into a store with a sign that read 'On the Hook'

Interesting. It was probably a fishery, given the name, but most fisheries that Lena had seen had pretty generic names, like Town Fishery. This name was actually fairly creative.

Lena was startled by a cough, and realized that there were many people staring at her with curiosity. She stopped thinking about fishery names. She really was just trying to avoid meeting everyone at this point. She took a deep breath and stepped forwards. She had to get it over with eventually, and she really did not want to keep everyone waiting for her.

"And here's the brave new rancher! Welcome to our Waffle Island," Hamilton said "I'm Hamilton. I'm the mayor here!"

"Um…I'm Lena," Lena managed to force out, "Hello everyone."

"Don't be nervous! You'll love it here. Waffle Island is a great place filled with wonderful opportunities!" Mayor Hamilton said, "You'll prosper in no time!"

There is was. That famous 'you'll prosper' line. Lena tried very hard not to visibly wince. That line…Why did everyone always think that it was all about money? Lena had had a bad experience in the past with the line… Well it WAS bound to come up eventually in an overexcited mayor's welcome. Really, what had she expected?

"Are you alright?" a girl around Lena's age with shoulder length brown hair asked, noticing that Lena had spaced out. That would have been the second time in the span of ten minutes. Lena was really not getting off to a good start. They probably all thought that she was some dreamy girl who never paid attention, and did not have the brain capacity to follow a conversation.

Lena turned red again. "Yeah sorry…" she mumbled.

The woman laughed, "Don't worry, Hamilton's always like that," She said, thinking that Lena had spaced out because of Hamilton's speech. She offered Lena a smile and held out a hand "I'm Elli. I work at town hall. Nice to meet you."

Lena shook her hand, startled, "N…nice to meet you too."

"Well, now that I've met you, I probably should get back to my desk now, or Gill will have a fit again. The workaholic. I'll be there if you want to see me. Please come visit sometime, alright? Good luck with your ranch" She grinned, and left Lena standing there, stunned by how welcome she was.

"Thanks…Bye then…" Lena stammered, even though Elli was out of earshot.

Lena was shocked by how welcome everyone who had waited at the dock was to her. They didn't seem to mind that she was shy or that she didn't seemed built like a rancher. But other than Elli though, the people she had met were all the 'adults' of the town, the 'over 30 and married' people. Elli was so mature that she almost counted. Even though Lena was twenty-six, she still didn't seem to be able to consider herself and her age group adults.

The flurry of people wanting to meet her, and the introductions were overwhelming, but unlike in her previous life, she was not allowed to just forget the names. Lena's head was spinning a bit trying to remember them all. There was Barbara and Simon who owned the general store, Ozzie and (of course) Pascal working at the fishery, and Jake, Colleen, Yolanda and Hayden at the inn. _Oh, and also Hamilton, the mayor._ She reminded herself. To Lena's relief, no one from the clinic had come to greet her and she had no intention of visiting it unless she absolutely had to. The clinic was a place to avoid.

She really had nothing to do for the remainder of the day after that, so she wandered around town in an attempt to conquer boredom. She had taken her stuff to the inn, forced herself to exchange pleasantries with the townspeople and received Hamilton's instructions: meet him outside the inn the next day. Now it was 2:00 and Lena had nothing to do. She hated having nothing to do when everyone else was working. It felt like she was not contributing. She sighed and kept walking.

Maybe exploring the town would help.

"Are you the new rancher?" A cool voice behind her asked.

Lena turned around. She had wandered into the Town Square, and had been looking at a peculiar, but beautiful flower under a tall tree, when that voice interrupted her thoughts. The first thing Lena saw were his icy blue eyes. Even colder than his almost accusing-sounding voice. Lena had not believed a person who seemed to hold everything with that much disdain, would exist, _could_ exist on such a cheery and optimistic island.

_He's one of those professionalism obsessed people_. Lena realized. She allowed herself a small, quick smile. She may not have known how to deal with cheery people, but it was people like him that Lena had put up with all the time at home. The first step was posture and eye contact. Lena drew herself up to her full height, raised her chin, squared her shoulders, and looked him steadily in the eyes, "Yes I am." She said. Then it would be to give her full name and a few meaningless words about how great it was to meet him, or asking about how he was. "My name is Lena Merritt. How are you?" She said evenly, offering him a hand. Check, sort of. She didn't really want to give him her legal 'professional' name that she had used at her job in her past life, so he would just have to be satisfied with the name she always went with. That way at least, he might not recognize her.

He seemed rather stunned. Clearly he had not expected her to respond in that manner, but his moment of being unprofessional was over as quickly and suddenly as it had happened. He accepted Lena's hand and shook it. "I am good, thank you. My name is Gill, I'm Hamilton's son," He replied. "Say…you look rather familiar."

_Shit,"_Do you keep up to date on research?" Lena asked without thinking, then immediately cursing at herself even more. _Well if he didn't know who you were before, then you surely gave it away by saying THAT_

"I do actually," Gill frowned, "You said that your family name is Merritt?"

Lena nodded. She did not like where this was going. _First day here and already someone's figured it out… I was hoping no one would know who I was…_

"Would you…would you happen to have a famous family member or relative or something of the sort?" Gill asked.

Lena sighed with relief. She could find a loophole easily in that to not lie and not give away anything either. "No, I don't."

"Huh," Gill looked thoughtful, "Never mind then, sorry for taking up your time."

"No, it's fine. I enjoyed our conversation" _Not really…_

Gill smiled. It looked painful, "I need to get going now then. There's lots of work to do. Thank you for your time, and good luck with your ranch." The expression on his face and the tone of his voice, which had returned to its former icy coolness, clearly said 'You'll defiantly need it.' He waved stiffly and left walking quite briskly. Borderline rude.

Lena sighed. She could hardly blame Gill for thinking that she wasn't the type of person who could manage a ranch. She clearly wasn't. She was a city girl who worked in an office or lab all her life. She did not do much physical work. Gill's expression and reaction to her just reminded her of what she was undertaking in coming to this island. She had finally found the pessimist of the island. The one who was NOT happy to see her. And he was absolutely right.

_What have I gotten myself into?_

**AN** So. That was terrible. I do realize that the girl character in ToT's name is Angela, but I only realized that AFTER I had written this, and by then I'd already gotten attatched to 'Lena' and already made her name a part of the plot.

And Lena is sorta part OC part Angela. She has nothing to do with Renee's japanese name - Lena.


End file.
